PDEA NEEDS HELP Agency struggles in antidrug operations without police help

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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Thursday, November 9, 2017
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ILOILO City – Since becoming the sole agency tasked to curb drug trafficking, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 6 managed to arrest six suspects only, all street-level drug pushers.

“We find it hard arresting them, especially the high-value targets,” said David Abraham Garcia, PDEA-6 public information officer.

When the Philippine National Police (PNP) was still the lead agency in the drug war,                          PDEA-6, with the support of the police, had at least 30 antidrug operations each month, said Garcia.

Without police assistance, PDEA-6 managed to conduct only six operations since Oct. 10.

In a memorandum issued on Oct. 10, President Rodrigo Duterte directed the PNP, National Bureau of Investigation, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Bureau of Customs and all other agencies or ad hoc antidrug task forces to stop conducting anti-illegal drug operations and leave the job to PDEA.

“The police was really a big help to us, especially in intelligence gathering,” said Garcia.

PDEA-6’s most recent operation was on Monday night, Nov. 6,  in Barangay Mansaya, La Paz district. Virgil Linaogo was arrested after selling a sachet of shabu to a PDEA operative for P300.

Garcia appealed for public help.

“We observe secrecy. Informants are assured of confidentiality. They can trust us,” said Garcia.

PDEA-6 lacks personnel to cover the whole Western Visayas. It only has 32, and these already include Garcia and the regional director, Wardley Getalla.

A “big challenge” was how Getalla described their being the sole law enforcement body tasked to conduct anti-illegal drug operations.

But “we accept the responsibility with open arms,” said Getalla.

“Despite our limited number of personnel marami pa tayong magagawa para mabigyan ng magandang laban ang droga,” he previously told this paper.

The director planned to open provincial PDEA offices and fill these with new recruits.

“Sana mabigyan tayo ng new recruits from the PDEA Academy para may sapat tayong tao,” said Getalla.

PDEA-6 had long been grappling with logistical challenges. In May last year, then regional director Paul Ledesma said they only had 27 personnel running after drug traffickers in the region’s 3,389 barangays spread in five provinces (Iloilo, Guimaras, Capiz, Aklan, and Antique; Negros Occidental was then still with the Negros Island Region) with a total of 95 municipalities and three cities.

“These personnel are not enough. That is why I am appealing for understanding,” said Ledesma.

Aside from law enforcement activities, PDEA “also has to perform administrative things, including attending court hearings,” he added.

With such manpower shortage, Ledesma had said totally eradicating illegal drugs from the region was a tall order so they must be realistic with their goals.

“The best that we can do is suppress it to a level that it won’t be an everyday concern. That is our goal,” said Ledesma.

Two months after, in July 2016, Ledesma was sacked from PDEA-6./PN
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